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CAROLUS SCRIBANIUS'S OBSERVATIONS
ON ART IN ANTWERP
Julius S. Held
174
journal of the Warburgand Courtauld Institutes, Volume 59, 1996
SCRIBANIUSON ART 175
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Fig. 49-Anthony van Dyck,Portraitof CarolusScribanius,S.J.
Vienna, KunsthistorischesMuseum, Gemaldegalerie,no. 145
the dynastic, ecclesiastic and particularly the monastic history of the town, and de-
scribes in considerable detail Antwerp's most prominent edifices, taking the reader,
as it were, on an extended architectural tour. (Scribanius's enthusiasm for the eco-
nomic and cultural state of affairs of Antwerp should not make us forget that for
many decades Antwerp had been in a state of decline, and despite the true glory
that Rubens brought to the city in the years after the publication of Scribanius's
176 JULIUS S. HELD
books, the town never recovered the position of economic power it had held only
two generations before.7)
Written in a highly rhetorical Latin, both books offer a great deal of relevant
historical information; they have often been cited by cultural historians. Yet the
few pages Scribanius devoted to Antwerp's artists, above all, her painters, have
been almost totally neglected by historians of art. This can easily be understood:
Scribanius's pages on art provide little information not available, and in more re-
liable form, in other documents, including the works of art themselves. Scribanius's
aim, after all, was not historical but in a special way polemical. Yet no matter how
idiosyncratic his style and how sketchy and even distorted some of his descriptions
are, he obviously knew first-hand, and admired, some major works by Bruegel,
Floris, Massys, Hemessen and Coxcie. In the massive learned literature on these
masters, however, his name, as far as I can see, is not mentioned even once. The
only exception is Armin Zweite's relatively recent book (1980) on Marten de Vos,
giving Scribanius credit for having been first to mention two of the artist's paint-
ings.8 Thus not as a source, but as a peculiar historical document, Scribanius's
pages deserve to be better known; it is the aim of this paper to make them available
in their original form and, for the first time, in translation, accompanied by some
explanatory and critical notes.9
Scribanius surely knew that in composing these two volumes 'in praise of Ant-
werp' he aligned himself squarely with a venerable literary tradition. The eulogy of
cities (laudes urbium, or Stddtelob)has long been recognised as a distinct literary
genre. Having emerged first in ancient Greece, it never disappeared, though after
having taken on different forms, it was again strongly revived in the Renaissance.10
If 'praising Antwerp' was Scribanius's principal objective, there has been woven
into it also a subtext, particularly noticeable in the sections given to art. They are
dominated by the equally age-old intellectual game of comparing the past to the
present, or the 'ancients' to the 'moderns', a game which in Scribanius's own time
led to the heated controversies and claims of superiority known as the 'Querelle'."
7 For the literature on Antwerp's economic develop- Die Stadt im Spiegel der DescriptionesuandLaudes urbium
ment in the 16th century see L. Voet,Antweip, The Golden in der antiken uind mittelalterlichenLiteratur bis zurmEnde
Age, The Rise and Glory of the Metropolisin the Sixteenth des zwilften Jahrhunderts, Hildesheim, Zurich and New
Centiuy, Antwerp 1973, p. 460. Voet records that Ant- York 1986; see also E P. T Slits, Het Latijnse Stededicht:
werp's population was c. 100,000 in the middle of the Oorsprongen ontwikkelingtot in de zeventiendeEeuw, Am-
century but by 1589 it had dropped to 42,000 and 20% sterdam 1990. In the later Middle Ages writings in praise
of houses stood empty (p. 238). He concludes his re- of cities grew not only in length but also in specificity
marks by saying that at the end of the century the city (Classen, pp. 53-5). Aware of the variety in the social
'was a shadow of what it had once been.' stratification of the urban culture of their time, the
8 A. Zweite, Studien zu Marten de Vos als Maler: Ein authors of these encomia discuss not only the civic or-
Beitrag zur Geschichteder AntweipenerMalerei in der zwei- ganisations and ordinances of the cities described, but
ten Hilfte des 16. Jahrhunderts,3 vols, Berlin 1980. Zweite also the industry, enterprise and skill of their people.
also cites the sentence Scribanius wrote about de Vos's While Scribanius's two books on Antwerp are indebted
?hnptationof St Anthonyv(i, p. 22, 'Huius etiam est... quid to, and represent, a characteristic example of the literary
timere debeas'; for this quotation see the Appendix be- tradition of the laudes urbiumi,their immediate 'model'
low, p. 200). may well have been Lodovico Guicciardini's Descrittione
Mr Andrew P. Gregory kindly examined my trans- ... di tutti i Paesi Bassi, altrimentidetti Germaniainferiore,
-'
lation of Scribanius's text and clarified many difficult Antwerp 1567, 1588; for Guicciardini's forerunners see
passages. He also made valuable suggestions for the again C. J. Classen, 'Lodovico Guicciardini's Descrittione
formulation of the main text of this paper. I am also and the Tradition of the Laudes and Descriptiones
indebted to Elizabeth McGrath and Jill Kraye, editors Urbium', Actes du Colloqueinternatiotal: ?iavaux de lIns-
of the Journal, for the last polish they have given to the titut Interuniversitairepour l'Mtudede la Renaissance et de
translation. l'Humanisime,Brussels 1991, pp. 99-117. For the general
"I I am much indebted to Professor Carl Joachim tradition of panegyrical or epideictic oratory see E. R.
Classen, G6ttingen, whose work was brought to my at- Curtius, EuropeanLiteratureand The Latin MiddleAges, tr.
tention by my friend Paul-Oskar Kristeller, for references W. R. Trask, New York and Evanston 1963, pp. 68-71.
to the extensive literature on the laudes urbium(Stdidtelob). I For the historical background of the 'Querelle' see
For the ancient and medieval examples see Classen's R. Black, 'Ancients and Moderns in the Renaissance:
SCRIBANIUS ON ART 177
There were prominent partisans on both sides of the argument, but also a good
many sensible critics who struck a reasonable balance, recognising the merits of
both camps. For a man of Scribanius's upbringing, heavily weighted as it was in
favour of the classics, the pre-eminence of the culture of Greece and ancient Rome
was surely an article of faith. But just as some Renaissance writers (among them
Vasari) had asserted that the achievements of some 'moderns' had equalled, if not
surpassed, the 'ancients', so Scribanius, engaged in writing his laus Antverpiae,
repeatedly maintained that Antwerp (in a later passage he extended it to all of
Belgium)"1 had brought forth many artists not a whit inferior to the celebrated
painters of ancient Greece.
Whatever Scribanius knew about ancient art he owed, as one would expect, to
Pliny's Naturalis historiaand principally to books xxxiv and xxxv.13 Moreover, when-
ever referring to specific works by Greek painters, he either quoted Pliny verbatim
or slightly paraphrased his words. Occasionally, he even adopted words from Pliny's
vocabulary in his commentaries on aspects of Flemish art. (See the notes to the
Latin text on pages 198-201 below.) His knowledge of the art of Antwerp and of
Northern art in general was restricted and largely confined to works in his close
environment: the majority of paintings mentioned were then located in Antwerp
Cathedral. For the planned confrontation of ancient and modern artists, Scribanius
limited himself to artists no longer alive, to avoid, as he says, reproaches from any
living one whom he may have passed over; to include all would have been too big
a job. This self-imposed limitation is all the more regrettable as by 1610 Rubens,
having recently returned from his long and successful stay in Italy, was unquestion-
ably recognised as Antwerp's foremost painter.
There is no more eloquent expression of a seventeenth-century artist's attitude
towards Pliny-a mixture of gratitude and regret-than Rubens's letter to Francis-
cus Junius of 1 August 1637.'~ He surely had Pliny in mind when he said, wistfully,
that the works of the ancients are seen 'only in the imagination, like dreams, or
so obscured by words, that we try in vain to grasp them (as Orpheus the shade of
Eurydice)'.15 He knew that words can never substitute for the actual visual appear-
ance of the works they describe. Scribanius had no such scruples. He never seems
to have been conscious of the substantive 'otherness' of the physical reality of a
work of art, compared to its reflection in the medium of words. When pitting for
the sake of comparison a work by a Flemish painter against one he knew only from
Pliny's description, Scribanius never seems to have been troubled by the thought
that he knew the first from personal experience, while for the other he had only
the meagre words of an ancient author who, as we know, repeated the words of
Rhetoric and History in Accolti's Dialogue on the Pre- or the 1587 edition, published by Jacques Dalechamps
eminence of Men of His Own Time',Journal of the History in Lyons. For this paper I have relied chiefly on the
of Ideas, xliii, 1982, pp. 3-32. See also H. Baron, 'The text and the paragraph divisions as printed in Pliny the
Querelle of the Ancients and the Moderns as a Problem Elder, Chapterson the Histoty of Art, tr. K. Jex-Blake, with
for Renaissance Scholarship', ibid., xx, 1959, pp. 3-22. commentary and introduction by E. Sellers, London
12 For Scribanius,
Belgium, as he makes clear in the 1896.
first chapter of Origines Antverpiensium, comprises all 14 M. Rooses and C. Ruelens,
Correspondance de Rubenls
the traditional 17 provinces of the ancient Netherlands, et documnents epistolairesconcernantsa vie et ses oeiivres,6 vols,
seven of which, he claims, have now been subverted by Antwerp 1887-1909, vi, p. 179; for a translation see R.
'fraud'. His second chapter is devoted to the principal S. Magurn, The Lettersof Peter PaidulRubens, Cambridge,
province of the remaining group, Brabantia (Brabant), Mass. 1955, pp. 406-8.
which encompasses the city of Antwerp. The Belgians 15
'...quae sola imaginatione tanquam somnia se nobis
are identified as the Germanic tribe which drove out the offerunt et verbis tantum adumbrata ter frustra comn-
Gauls, but not without infusing Germanic toughness prensa (ut Orpheum Euridices imago)...'
(duritiaGerflmanica) with Gallic mind (mensGallica).
I: Scribanius might have used the edition of Pliny
published by Sigmund Feyerabend in Frankfurt in 1582,
178 JULIUS S. HELD
still earlier authors, who may or may not have actually seen the works they de-
scribed.'6
For his demonstration of the greatness of Antwerp's artists (all of them of the
sixteenth century), Scribanius generally begins with a work by a Greek painter that
Pliny had listed and in most cases also praised. He then shifts to the work of a
Flemish painter, asserting that it is equal in quality and as praiseworthy as the one
described by Pliny. Like Pliny, he mentions only a few details, with emphasis given
to the presumed emotional states of the 'actors'. Stressing their emotions, Scri-
banius obviously holds with Horace that feelings, joyful or sad, reverberate simi-
larly in the viewer of a work of art, as they do also in the reader of a poem; and
the intensity of that transfer of emotions provides a measure of the greatness of a
given work.17
Although most of the works listed by Scribanius were close at hand, he felt no
obligation to check his commentaries against the actual paintings. He surely wrote
his descriptions from memory, but his memory was not very reliable; nor was cor-
rectness of description important to him. What he really hoped to do was provide
his reader with the emotive tenor of the chosen works of art, based on his own
emotional reaction to them. In fact, one may even ask whether Scribanius's drama-
tisation of the various narratives does not have something in common with practices
learned through the SpiritualExercisesof St Ignatius, in the intense concentration, be-
yond what the artist provided, on how the characters would react-in bliss or in
pain-to the situation in which they find themselves. '
Surprisingly, Scribanius makes only one reference to Van Mander's book on the
Netherlandish artists, published just six years before.'9 He calls it, respectfully, I
think, a 'curiosum volumen',"' but clearly had not much use for it. (His character-
isation of Joachim Beuckelaer as a painter of 'apples... fowl, meats and fish' may
be an echo of Van Mander's 'vegetables, fruit, meat, birds and fish'."~)There was,
after all, a fundamental difference between the aims of both authors. Van Mander,
himself a painter, wrote as a historian, interested in biographical data, artistic fili-
ation and factual enumeration of works to the extent that he knew or had heard of
them, on the model of Vasari. For his book on the artists of the ancient world (Het
Leven der oude AntijckedoorluchtigheSchilders,first published in 1603), Van Mander
relied of course also on Pliny, but he read him critically and in the light of other
sources. Scribanius, in his much more modest undertaking, is above all a polemi-
cist, drumming his message of the excellence of Antwerp's artists relentlessly into
the consciousness of his readers.
Scribanius begins the section on paintings (Arspictoria) with a broad eulogy of
Flemish art in general. Yet even in this passage, where no individual painter is
named, his dependence on Pliny is painfully obvious. When he praises local artists
for having given their figures 'oris venustas', 'capilli elegantia', 'oculorum argutiae',
16 For
Pliny's sources for his chapters on art see Sellers's function of ekphrasisin Byzantine literature see also L.
introduction (as in n. 13). James and R. Webb, "'To Understand Ultimate Things
17 Horace, Ars
poetica, 102-8. and Enter Secret Places": Ekphrasis and Art in Byzan-
'8 This is not the place to go into the tradition of ek- tium', Art History,xiv.1, 1991, pp. 1-17.
phrasesand the currently much discussed field of poetry 1i' Carel van Mander, Het leven der doorluchtigheneder-
describing works of art. It is well known that the writers laindtsche en hooghdluytscheschilders,Alkmaar 1604.
of such poems tend to flesh out the visual images with 2( 'Curiosus' is here
certainly used in a complimentary
actions and sensations befitting that context. For a valu- sense, implying that Van Mander's volume is both well-
able discussion of these problems, in connection with a informed and carefully worked out. See H. Miedema,
review of G. J. M. Weber,Der Lobtoposdes 'lebenden'Bildes. 'Karel van Mander: Did he write Art Literature?', Simi-
Jan JbosuindseiM'Zeegeder Schilderkunist' von 1654 (Hilde- olius,xxii. 1-2, 1993/4, pp. 59-60.
21 Van Mander
sheim, Zurich and New York 1991), see H. Luijten in (as in n. 19), fol. 238".
Simiolus,xxii.4, 1993/4, pp. 326-31. For the nature and
SCRIBANIUSON ART 179
he is more or less repeating (in different order) what Pliny had written about the
works of Parrhasius ('argutiae voltus', 'elegantia capilli', 'venustas oris').22 But when
he continues talking about the complexity of the folds of garments or the exag-
gerated anatomies of the figures, he may indeed have had in mind works of the
Flemish painters to whom he turns in the following paragraphs. And even though
there is a remote analogy in his classification of landscape motifs with Pliny's list-
ing of the landscapes by Studius,2" it shows that Scribanius was fully aware of the
importance and the specific nature of Flemish landscape painting in the sixteenth
century. Before turning to the individual painters he had selected for this chapter
Scribanius proudly asserts that more artists had originated in Antwerp ('ex hac una
Republica') in one century (the sixteenth) than in all previous ones. With his last
words he comes back once more to the basic theme of his study, the making of a
fair comparison between the ancients and the moderns: 'Repetamus grata veteres
memoria, et quantum fas est componamus' ('Let us recall those of old with a grate-
ful memory and, as far as is appropriate, use them as a comparison').
As the first artist to be his witness for the glory of Antwerp's art Scribanius chose
Frans Floris (1519/20-70). This alone attests to the writer's good judgement since
Floris was unquestionably the foremost representative of the 'official' (Italianate)
practice of art in the middle of the sixteenth century; as such he was the counter-
part of Pieter Bruegel, his contemporary, of whose greatness Scribanius was also
fully aware. Moreover, Scribanius picked for his 'comparison' what is surely an
outstanding work of Floris, if not his masterpiece: the Fall of the Rebel Angels, now
in the Antwerp Museum but formerly in Antwerp Cathedral (Fig. 50).24 For the
juxtaposition with an ancient work he chose a 'celebrated' painting by Bularchos,
depicting the Battle of the Magnetes.25The case is instructive since the sequence in
which Scribanius arranged the two works (beginning with Bularchos) surely re-
verses the actual process of his thoughts about them. Being deeply, and justifiably,
impressed with Floris's painting-a combat pitting St Michael and his heavenly
Host against Lucifer and the forces of darkness-he had evidently looked in Pliny's
Historia naturalis for a renowned Greek painting also depicting a battle; and while
he knew no more of Bularchos's work than its subject, it had for him at least the
special interest of having been acquired by Candaules, King of Lydia, who (as Pliny
said) paid its weight in gold. Describing the fierce struggle in Floris's painting,
Scribanius centres on the powerful emotions displayed by both sides, even to the
extent of 'hearing' their vociferous exclamations.
In the second painting by Floris that Scribanius describes, the Assumptionof the
Virgin26 (no longer extant), he recalls particularly the joyful mood conveyed by
angels who apparently accompany the Virgin as she ascends to heaven. The picture
was set up on the high altar of the cathedral where, half a century later, another
Assumption of the Virgin was placed-a work still in the same location today-
Rubens's painting of c. 1626.27 Scribanius reserved his longest commentary on a
picture by Floris for the Last Judgement, presumably the canvas now in Brussels
22
Pliny (as in n. 13), xxxv.67. Velde suggests (on the basis of records of relatively small
23
Ibid., xxxv. 116. payments) that Floris repaired the work, but states firm-
24 Signed 'FF.IV [Invenit] ET.FA [Faciebat] 1554'. See ly that it was removed from the church 'shortly after 10
C. Van de Velde, Frans Floris (1519/20-1570): Leven en May 1581'. Since Scribanius singled out the 'joyful angels'
Werken,Brussels 1975, pp. 209-13, no. 62. I thank the accompanying the Virgin, it is possible that his memory
Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten in Antwerp was reinforced by Van Mander's text, which had also
for permission to reproduce this illustration. made reference to these angels.
25 Pliny (as in n.
13), xxxv.55. 27 See D. Freedberg, Rubens, The Life of Christafter the
26 Van de Velde
(as in n. 24), pp. 280-2, no. 139. The Passion (Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, vii),
triptych of the Assumptionof the Virgin, done in 1561-4, London 1984, no. 43.
was severely damaged by iconoclasts in 1566. Van de
180 JULIUS S. HELD
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Fig. 50-Frans Floris, The Fall of the RebelAngels. Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor
Schone Kunsten, no. 112
SCRIBANIUSON ART 181
(Fig. 51).28 He points particularly to the contrast between the happiness of the elect
and the suffering of the damned, both painted so forcefully that the viewer himself
is 'terrified by the scenes of torture, but elated by those of rejoicing' 29
Mentioning only briefly a Last Judgement by Jacques de Backer (1540/5-before
1600),"3 Scribanius turns to a painting that appears to have held a particular fasci-
nation for him, Bruegel's Massacreof the Innocents (Fig. 52).3" (As an introduction he
refers to several paintings by Parrhasius [Pliny, Historia naturalis, xxxv.70-1], one of
which-a nurse holding an infant-forms a striking contrast to the pitiful action in
Bruegel's picture.)
28 In the 1560s Floris painted two versions of the Last in the same order Van Mander had mentioned them (as
Judgement.They are closely related to each other and to in n. 19, fol. 241). His commentary, at any rate, is clearly
some extent use the same figural groups and actions. his own.
The first, of 1565, condenses the many different goings- 30 For De Backer see
J. Miiller Hofstede, Jacques
on into one unified field, while the second, of 1566, de Backer, Ein Vertreter der florentinisch-r6mischen
distributes them over the three fields of a triptych (see Maniera in Antwerpen', Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch, xxxv,
Van de Velde, as in n. 24, nos 180 and 178-9 respect- 1973, pp. 227-60. Scribanius probably had in mind De
ively). The earlier one seems to have been acquired by Backer's Last Judgement of 1591, painted for the epi-
Emperor Rudolf II (1552-1612) at an unknown date; its taph of Christopher Plantin and his family in Antwerp
first appearance (in a Prague inventory) is in 1621. It is Cathedral (ibid., fig. 5). Another Last Judgement by De
signed 'FF. ANTVERPIEN.INVE.FAC.1565', and Van Backer, of 1571, is in the Antwerp Museum (ibid., fig. 1).
de Velde argues convincingly that the stress on the place 31 I thank the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, for
of origin may indicate a foreign commission; thus it is permission to reproduce this illustration. The painting is
more likely that Scribanius knew the second version, known in several versions, of which the one at Hamp-
signed 'FFL.ET.fec.A.1566', which today is in the Brus- ton Court, though sadly disfigured by later alterations
sels Museum; it came from the church of Notre-Dame and restorations, is generally accepted as the original;
du Sablon in Brussels, where Scribanius could have seen see E Grossmann, Bruegel, The Paintings, London [1973],
it, if it was not at that time still in an Antwerp location. nos 110 (Vienna), 111 (Hampton Court). See also L.
I thank the Musdes Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique Campbell, The Early FlemishPicturesin the Collectionof Her
for permission to reproduce the illustration. Majesty the Queen, Cambridge, London, New Rochelle,
29 It
may be no more than coincidence, but is worth Melbourne and Sydney 1985, no. 9. Campbell cites 13
noting that Scribanius lists the three paintings by Floris versions of which four stand out for their quality, but he
182 JULIUS S. HELD
r!"'N
.
.. e
MR,,
I j
iA'.
Bruegel's painting had also attracted the attention of Van Mander, who men-
tioned it twice: in his poetic instruction for painters, the Grondtder Edel vry Schilder-
Konst (1604), and in the lives of the Nederlandtscheen HoogduytscheSchilders(also
1604).32 In both places he singled out a group of people (he calls them a family)
begging a soldier to spare the life of a child whose mother is about to faint; in the
rhymed text of the Grondtthe soldier admits to pity but claims, regretfully, that he
has to follow the king's command. What Van Mander surprisingly failed to men-
tion, Scribanius points out in his first sentence: that the action painted by Bruegel
takes place in a wintry setting, the ground solidly covered with snow. No matter
how distorted his description may be in other respects, this observation alone would
suggest, I believe, that Scribanius had seen and remembered either Bruegel's orig-
inal or an early copy. Yet having apparently no reliable recollection of the separate
actions depicted by Bruegel, Scribanius interpolated into Bruegel's work variations
on a gruesome incident found in Pliny's description of a painting by Aristides,
which was admired (and acquired) by Alexander the Great.33In that picture, ren-
dering the sack of a city, Aristides had painted a mother wounded to death, who,
seeing her infant child crawling towards her breast, fears that it might suck her
blood now that her milk has dried up. Whatever explanation we may choose for it,
too considers the Hampton Court example the best. He 3" Pliny (as in n. 13), xxxv.98.
does not mention Scribanius's book.
32 See Carel van Mander, Den grondt der edel vry schilder-
konst, Haarlem 1604, vi.54; and Het Leven... (as in n. 19),
fol. 233v.
SCRIBANIUS ON ART 183
:: 4m,
J: -
--:
4"il ;
l~~Al L
of Christ(triptych,central panel).
Fig. 53-Quentin Massys(Metsijs),TheLamentation
Antwerp, Museum voor Schone Kunsten
Scribanius seems to have been obsessed with that action. In his fictitious descrip-
tion of Bruegel's panel he evokes first the colouristic contrast of the red of the
blood mingling with the white of the snow; he then proceeds to describe different
incidents, among them one of a child imbibing blood and milk from his mother's
breast, while in another scene a severely wounded child sucks the snow in its last
agony.34 Scribanius fails, however, to introduce the psychological pain of the dying
mother, who notices her child's approach to her breast. Instead, by multiplying the
incidents-and in this he may well have remembered the many different groups of
figures in Bruegel's panel-he claims superiority, in fact even 'victory' for the Flem-
ish painter in this rather uneven contest.35
34 In the Vienna version of Bruegel's Massacre of the 35 The macabre story which Pliny had told in 20 words
Innocentsthere is a small pool of blood on the snow near ('oppido capto ad matris morientis ex volnere mammam
the head of one of the children lying on the ground. Its adrepans infans, intellegiturque sentire mater et timere
mother, wringing her hands in helpless sorrow, stands ne emortuo lacte sanguinem lambat') and which Van
nearby, implying almost certainly that the child is dead. Mander retold at nearly four times its length (Het Leven
184 JULIUS S. HELD
'NIN-
Ado,,
der oude Atitjcke doorluchtigheSchilders...,Alkmaar 1603, influence, in a painting by Michiel Sweerts (New York,
fol. 71"), seems to have acquired the nature of an Saul P. Steinberg Collection), where the incident is given
emotional topos, appropriate for particularly dolorous particular prominence by a strong light trained upon
stories. In his life of G(hirlandaio, Vasari says that in his it (P. C. Sutton, The Age of Ruibenis,exhib. cat., Boston
Massacreof the Innhoceints in Sta Maria Novella the Flor- 1983-4. no. 129).
entine master included a similar incident (among several :3 L. Silver, The Paintiingsof Qintetn with Cala-
others): 'si vede uno che ancora appiccato alla poppa logue Montclair 1984, no. 11,
MaI.svs,,
pp. 204-5, pls 13,
muore per le ferite ricevute nella gola, onde sugge, per raisot•i,
15, 17-20. I thank the Museum voor Schone Kunsten,
non dir beve, dal petto non meno sangue che latte: cosa Antwerp, for permission to reproduce the illustrations
veramente di sua natura, e per esser fatta nella maniera (Figs 53-5).
17
ch'ella e, da tornar viva la pieta' dove ella fusse ben Pliny (as in n. 13), xxxv.73.
morta.' (Giorgio Vasari, Le Vite de piti ecellenti pittori, :MScribanius apparently transferred the music-making
scultori e architettori,ed. G. Milanesi, iii, Florence 1878, firom some background figures to Salome. He also read
pp. 264-5). Despite Vasari's 'si vede' I have not been into the attitudes and expressions of the principal figures
able to discover such a detail in the photos of (Chirlan- more what he expected from them in the context of the
daio's fresco (which admittedly appears to have suffered action than what the artist had indicated. At any rate,
damages), nor has Dr Wolfger Bulst, who was kind compared to this perceptive, if rather personal, descrip-
enough to examine the painting for me, identified this tion of Massys's altarpiece, Van Mander's discussion of
particular action. 'One cannot help suspecting that Va- the work is rather paltry. He admits that the figures
sari let himself be guided here by literary tradition', he around the dead body of Christ exhibit all attitudes of
wrote. If this fusion of visual and textual memory could sadness ('alle ghedaenten van droefheyt'); yet more note-
happen to Vasari, Scribanius's case is less astounding. worthy for him was the apparently popular guessing
The motif of an infant on the breast of its wounded and game of how many horses' heads-six, seven, or eight-
dying mother does occur later in Marcantonio's engrav- could be seen on the right wing. He attributed this
ing (after Raphael) of The Plague in Phrygia, where a difficulty to the less than perfect condition of the work,
male figure (its father?) restrains the child from ap- which allowed some viewers to read some helmets as
proaching the mother's breast (The Illustrated Bartsch, horses' heads. While using his familiar vocabulary of
ed. W. L. Strauss, xxvii, New York 1978, no. 417). The praise ('wonderlycke constigh, uytnemende net, suvver,
most famous variation of the theme is found in Pous- en scherp': Het leven, as in n. 19, fol. 216r, 11.15, 25), he
sin's Plague at Ashdod (I Samuel 5) in the Louvre (see notes also that the execution, if seen from nearby, is
A. Blunt, The Paihltitngs of Nicolas Poussin, London 1960, somewhat rouw (rough).
39 The
no. 32), vividly described by Bellori (Le Vite de' pittori, prototype for the attitude of the saint during
scultori et architettimoderni,Rome 1672, pp. 414-15). It his ordeal is clearly l)iirer's woodcut B.61 fi-om the
was also introduced, most probably under Poussin's Apocalypsecycle of 1498; for Massys's use of that print
SCRIBANIUSON ART 187
at~B~II~ Illls~L
P$:l
i:
-:.ii --?-:--?--
Whether or not Scribanius arranged the sequence of the various Flemish paint-
ers according to a plan is hard to say; yet it may not be accidental that, after end-
ing his discussion of Massys's triptych with an allusion to the sexual heat of a
brothel, he turns to a painting that depicts precisely such a setting: the Prodigal Son
in a Bawdy House, by Jan van Hemessen, in Brussels (Fig. 56).40 Unlike Massys, who
by the early seventeenth century was renowned as the founder of the Antwerp
school of painters,41 Hemessen-though briefly mentioned by Guicciardini-was
largely forgotten. Van Mander knew only his name and the subject of one of his
pictures; Scribanius's interest in and intimate knowledge of his Prodigal Son is all
the more remarkable. Since the subject made the panel hardly suitable for display
in an ecclesiastical setting, we may reasonably assume that it was either in the Jesuit
College (the Professed House) in Antwerp, or was owned by a collector in close re-
lationship with the author (if not by Scribanius himself).42
For the purpose of comparison, Scribanius begins by evoking no less an artist
than Zeuxis, perhaps the most celebrated of all the Greek painters; yet immediately
in the scene of St John's martyrdom see J. S. Held, 40 See B. Wallen,
Jan van Hemessen,an AntwerpPainter
Diirer's Wirkung auf die niederliindischeKunst seiner Zeit, betweenReformand Counter-Reform, Ann Arbor 1983, pp.
The Hague 1931, p. 80. Scribanius may also have re- 53-9. I thank the Musdes Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Bel-
membered, if only subconsciously, the similar torture gique, Brussels, for permission to reproduce this illus-
of St George, who, submerged in molten lead, as the tration. The painting is signed 'JOES DE HEMESSEN
LegendaAurea has it, 'made the sign of the Cross and felt PINGEBAT' and dated 1536.
no more than the touch of a soothing bath' (The Golden 41 See J. S. Held, Rubensand His Circle, Princeton 1982,
Legend of Jacobus de Voragine,tr. and adapted by G. Ryan p. 39.
and H. Ripperger, New York, London and Toronto 42 I am indebted to Lorne
Campbell for the infor-
1948, p. 236). mation that Hemessen's Prodigal Son is mentioned by
188 JULIUS S. HELD
he turns to Hemessen as an artist of
equal merit. And just as Pliny had
described three different sections of
what appears to have been one of Zeu-
xis's major paintings (the main theme
evidently being the infant Hercules
strangling two serpents),43so Scribanius
opposes to these details three taken
from Hemessen'sProdigalSon, each one,
10^ so he claims, artistically equal to the
Greek work. Two of these incidents are
relegated to the distant background,
visible through openings of the Renais-
sance architecture that is the setting of
the main action. At the rear left, the
Prodigal Son is beaten and thrown out
of the house. In the first opening he is
seen (in the far distance) as a swineherd,
on his knees, and looking up to heaven
in prayer.44 The return to his father and
the festive meal is the subject in the
background at the right, surely not ac-
cidentally above the bagpipe player, to
Fig. 57-Jacob Jordaens, Self-portrait whom we shall return.45
Playinga Bagpipe.Genk (Belgium), Not content with elevating Hemes-
private collection sen by making him an artistic peer of
Zeuxis, Scribanius introduces two addi-
tional Greek painters, Nicias and Pausias,46both known for their skill in depicting
animals, in order to call our attention to a thieving cat (in the left foreground), a
telling allusion to the rapacious women surrounding the Prodigal Son47 Shifting
his approach, Scribanius continues the comparison in monetary terms. Citing the
Medea by Timomachus,48 a picture of which Pliny can only say that it was sold for
eighty talents, he questions whether money can do justice to Hemessen's portrayal
of the impudent old procuress; and he ends his detailed examination with a brief
description of some of the other figures, such as the happily smiling old toper just
behind the vulgarly smirking bawd, or the blind man (playing a hurdy-gurdy)49 led
into the room by a turbaned one, who holds him by the arm.
Frangois Mols (1722-91) in his Anecdotespittoresqueset though it is not clear what his evidence is for this bold
litteraires,tant sur Rubens, & autres artistes(Brussels, Bib- thesis. I am also dubious about his effort to interpret the
liothbque Royale MSS 17661-4). In 1773 it belonged to major figures in Hemessen's painting as personifications
a certain Pieters d'Anvers. of the seven deadly sins.
43 Pliny (as in n. 13), xxxv.63-4. 46
Pliny (as in n. 13), xxxv.133 (Nicias) and xxxv.126-7
44 Scribanius'swordy account of the conflicting emotions (Pausias).
47 For the thieving cat in the context of Prodigal Son
imputed to the Prodigal Son in this phase of his life
('incertus animi, pugnantibus inter se, fame, frigore, scenes see K. Renger, LockereGesellschaft,Berlin 1970,
erubescentia, praeteritorum memoria, futurorum metu') pp. 129-30 and fig. 82 (painting at the Wadsworth
prefigures Constantijn Huygens's equally verbose read- Atheneum, Hartford, CT).
ing of Judas's repentance in Rembrandt's early picture 48 Pliny (as in n. 13), xxxv.135.
of 1629 (Britain, private collection; see D. Bomford, 49 Scribanius calls him a 'cytharoedum' (player of the
C. Brown and A. Roy, Art in the Making, exhib. cat., cithara) but he is shown playing the hurdy-gurdy, the
National Gallery, London 1989, p. 37). traditional instrument of the blind. See E. Winternitz,
45 Wallen (as in n. 40) attributes these background 'Bagpipes and Hurdy-gurdies in their Social Setting',
scenes to Jan Swart van Groningen (active c. 1520-53), MetropolitanMuseum of Art Bulletin, ii, 1943-4, p. 68: 'it
claiming him to have been a collaborator of Hemessen, is played only by the poor, and especially by the blind.'
SCRIBANIUS ON ART 189
5- E. Winternitz, 'The Inspired Musician. A Sixteenth- tutti i Paesi Bassi, forms part of the remarkable list of
Century Musical Pastiche', Burlington Magazine, c, Feb. seven women artists active in the Netherlands in the
1958, pp. 1-4. Winternitz interpreted the young woman 16th century, pp. 130-1.)
as the musician's Muse who 'baptises' ('nourishes' might 55 If Hemessen did indeed portray himself playing the
be better) his instrument with the milk she presses from bagpipe he was not the only Flemish artist to do so. In
her breast. the 17th century Jordaens also portrayed himself play-
" Wallen (as in n. 40). Caterina's marriage to Chretien ing that low-class instrument (Fig. 57); see R.-A. d'Hulst,
de Morien had already been mentioned by Guicciardini: JacobJordaens,Ithaca, N.Y. 1982, pl. 153, text p. 181. For
'Caterina figliuola di maestro Giouanni d'Hemssen... self-portraits in dissolute company see Renger (as in n.
moglie di Christiano eccellentissimo Sonatore di buon' 47), p. 132.
accordo, & altri strumenti...' (This passage, here quoted 56 Pliny (as in n. 13), xxxv. 155.
from the 1588 [Antwerp] edition of the Descrittione...di
SCRIBANIUS ON ART 191
.4
....
...
57 See M. J. Friedlander, Early Netherlandish Painting, 60 The description given by Scribanius brings to mind
xiii, Leiden and Brussels 1975, pp. 51-6. Rubens's Crucifixion scene known as the Coup de Lance,
58 Van Mander (as in n. 19), fol. 232v. painted c. 1620 for the church of the Recollects and now
59 See Freedberg (as in n. 27), pp. 59-61. in the Antwerp Museum; the disappearance of Key's
192 JULIUS S. HELD
Before turning to Marten de Vos (1531/2-1603) Scribanius recounts two anec-
dotes about Protogenes, taken from different sections of Pliny's book."' He also cites
one of Pliny's rare critical judgements, supposedly coming from the mouth of
Apelles. Despite all his gifts, so Apelles said, Protogenes did not know 'when to lift
his hand from a picture'.62 Although Scribanius does not link the fault of 'excessive
diligence' expressisverbiswith De Vos-who follows immediately-it is not unreason-
able to suspect that he had this defect in mind, particularly with regard to one of
the two works by De Vos which he cites: the Temptationof St Anthony(1594), formerly
in the Cathedral (Fig. 60).63 It is crowded with hellish monsters on the ground and
in the air, evoking the Bosch-Bruegel tradition as well as the ferocious demons
besetting the same saint in works of Schongauer and Grtinewald. Of De Vos's altar-
piece of the Doubting Thomas(1574) painted for the guild of the furriers, originally
in the Cathedral but now also in the museum (no. 80),64Scribanius mentions only
the Beheading of St John on the right wing of the triptych (Fig. 61). He was clearly
struck by the rapidly foreshortened body of the Baptist, sprawling on his back, 'as
if he had only just... fallen down', an observation testifying to Scribanius's talent
for original perception.65 (It may be worth remembering in this context that Van
Mander, while full of general words of praise for De Vos, does not mention a single
work by that master.)
It is rather surprising that Scribanius picks for one of his last comparisons of a
Flemish painter and a Greek one the relatively obscure Pieter Balten(s) (1527-84),66
whose name is printed in small italics in the margin of the page. Scribanius seems
to have had a very definite idea of the character of Balten's art, as one sympatheti-
cally depicting peasants' festivities. Opposing this to the Dancing Spartan Maidens
mentioned by Pliny as the work of Callimachos,67Scribanius clearly makes the point
that great art can manifest itself just as well in scenes depicting the revels of Flemish
boors as in the gyrations of (presumably graceful) young ladies from Sparta. In this
connection Scribanius breaks once more a lance for Flemish artists who concen-
trated on depicting nature, singling out three painters (their names, like Balten's,
are printed in small type in the margin): Joachim Patinir (active 1515-24), Cornelis
Molenaer (1520[?]-?) and Joachim Beuckelaer (mentioned before).
At this point in his discourse, and for the first time, Scribanius makes reference
not to Greek painters but to three Italian Renaissance masters (Raphael, Michel-
angelo and Titian) and three German ones (Diirer, Holbein and Aldegrever); and
he follows this with a veritable avalanche of names, almost certainly taken from
Van Mander, whose Schilder-Boeckis here mentioned for the first-and last-time.
He begins with three of the Antwerp masters he had mentioned before (Massys,
Floris and Bruegel), followed by no less than nineteen additional names of 'the
illustrious painters of all of Belgium', including"8 three 'Dutch' masters, Jan van
Scorel, Marten van Heemskerck and Dirk Barentsz. Behind this somewhat arid
picture deprives us of the opportunity to see whether may have been transmitted to De Vos through a work
Rubens was in any way indebted to the earlier work, of Barent Van Orley, known from a drawn copy in the
which surely had occupied an important place. der
Albertina in Vienna (see O. Benesch, Die Zeichintungeni
(1 Pliny (as in n. 13), xxxv. 102-3, 106. niederldindischenSchulen des XI. uzid X'I. Jahlrhunderts,
62 Ibid., xxxv.80. Vienna 1928, no. 47, pl. 14). The foreshortened corpse
6:3 See Zweite (as in n. 8), no. 84.
I thank the Koninklijk of the Baptist may also have been derived from an
Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp, for permission earlier source.
to reproduce this and the following illustrations. 11 For Pieter Balten see S. J. Kostyshyn, "'"Doortsoeck-
64 Ibid., no. 56. en men vindt". A Reintroduction to the Life and Work
1, Zweite observed correctly that the pose of the ex- of Peeter Baltens Alias Custodis of Antwerp (1527-84)',
ecutioner ultimately reverts to Diirer's woodcut of the Ph.D. diss., Case Western Reserve University 1994.
67
Beheading of the Baptist (B.125, 1510: see The Complete Pliny (as in n. 13), xxxiv.92.
Woodcutsof AlbrechtDiirer, New York 1963, p. 212), but "6 See n. 12 above.
SCRIBANIUS ON ART 193
:- ::
i-.??~
i::-:-::
--_i
:::`::::::'
:a:.::
-_:-?:::::
;::::
::-::s;r~a~81~: sa~ap?
:
?--;:.::;::---::::::i-;::
::::
:i--iii:
?::: _-ii-i-::__:_
:-:iii'
::::
69 It is signed 'MICHEL D. COXCYIN AETATIS SUAE presumably, to emphasise the technical identity of con-
76 FE. 1575'. temporary procedures with those of antiquity. 'Tela iugo
70 This
particularly devilish device is described at much iuncta est, stamen secernit arundo. /Inseritur medium
greater length in the legendary life of St Catherine (see radiis subtemen acutis, /Quod lato feriunt inserti pectine
LegendaAurea, 25 Nov.). dentes.' ('The warp is attached to the beam, the reed
71
Pliny (as in n. 13), xxxv.95. separates the threads. The [threads of the] woof are in-
72 The three lines from book vi of the
Metamoriphoses troduced between them with pointed shuttles, and the
(apparently condensed from 11. 55-8) are introduced, teeth of the broad comb knock them [into place].')
SCRIBANIUS ON ART 195
-:_-iiiiii
-"--I---';:`:
i~?li-i
::: --::-:-::
--- -
.: :::
::I:
ii::::::
79 See L. Voet,
The Goldeii Compasses,i, Amsterdam s" The source for these dimensions of the temple of
1969, pp. 62-4, pl. 15. Diana at Ephesus is again Pliny, xxxvi, p. 506 (of the
"' See A.
J. J. Delen, Icoiiographie van Antwerpetn, 1582 edn).
Brussels 1930, nos 125 (Cathedral), 126 (town hall), 127 82 See Voet
(as in n. 7).
(Bursa), 128 (German Hanse).
198 JULIUS S. HELD
APPENDIX
Pictoriam non transeo intactam; maxime cum videam lege cautum, vt picturam soli ingenui
exercerent, perpetuo interdicto ne seruitia docerentur, non Sicyone tantum, sed Graecia
tota.83 Neque ego in magna hac arte, viuos attingam artifices, magna Europaea miracula:
nam & modica in hac enumeratione gratia, & offensa timeri potest magna. Si enim paucos
enumerauero, quid nisi inuidiam exspectem? si omnes, ingens sit labor: si hunc illi ante-
feram, quid nisi linguae iacula, aut penicilli sperem licentiam? venient posteri, qui sine
aemulationis prurigine, magna saeculi vrbisque vestrae nomina nobili calamo propala-
bunt. de quibus interim, vniuersim hoc audeo: nullam in his penicilli gloriam desiderari;
non oris venustatem, capilli elegantiam, oculorum argutias,8" non respicientes, suspici-
entes, despicientesque vultus;85 non vestium sinus rugasque; non venarum implexus; non
articulorum membrorumque decora,"6 musculorumque contuberationes, ac quasi bulbos;
non camporum laeta, tristiaque; non luxuriantes, cadentesve nemorum vertices; non colles
ascensu salebrosos; non montium dorsa pascuis, latera viretis, opaca lustris, aperta cul-
turis, concaua fontibus, abrupta fecundata fluminibus. Sed neque priscos in his desiderabis
artifices; non Atheniensem Apollodorum, Parrhasium Ephesium, aut Xeuxen illius linteo
deceptum, cui etiam palmam concessit ingenuo pudore,87 non Eupompum, Pamphilum,
Demophilum, Melanthium, Echionem, Euphranorem, Cydiam, Pausiam.
Verum de vita functis, & quos mors extra inuidentia iactum posuisse videri potest, mihi
verba. Habuerunt prope singula orbis Regna magnos in hoc genere artifices; quorum
nomina aeternitati sacrata, ab illa omnium artium scientiarumque admiratrice & laudatrice
antiquitate. Plures tamen vno saeculo, ex hac vna Republica prodiisse, quam ex multis retro
aetatibus toto orbe reperies. Repetamus grata veteres memoria, & quantum fas est compo-
namus.
Celebratur ab illis Bularchi tabula, in qua Magnetum proelium, a Candaule Lydiae
Rege repensa auro.88 At ego video apud vos Francisci Floris caeli pugnam; Luciferum
deciduum, superstantem Michaelem, huius agmina insultantia, terrentia, minitantia; illius e
praecipitio pendula, ac in medio lapsu tremula, vt & cadere arbitreris, & mente turbata
vltima blasphematione caelum impetere. Video alibi Dei matrem conscendentem caelos,
ludentesque circumsecus angelos; vt & diffluere gaudio beatas illas mentes, & aera pennis
scindere lento suauique quodam remigio, arbitreris:89 sed & omnem circa regionem caeli
gaudium persentiscere; ita omnia laetitiae quamdam frontem induisse videntur, depulsis
moeroris signis. Huius etiam est ludicium in die Domini magno. Multa hic ad horrorem;
sententia ludicis, cuius adhuc vltima verba innatant labris, & indignantes oculi maledictum
iaculantes: inde corporum raptus, inferorum gurges; mixtae infelici interitu maribus femi-
nae, iuuenes senibus: caeli dehinc amoena, corporumque ad illa volatus, vt mireris tam
diu suspensa aeri suo inhaerere quasi aeternum volantia: quosdam etiam apud inferos
8'1Pliny, xxxv.77, about Pamphilus, the teacher of 87 Pliny, xxxv.65, about Parrhasius's
'painted curtain':
Apelles: 'huius auctoritate effectum est Sicyone primum, 'Zeuxis... remoto linteo ostendi picturam atque intellecto
deinde et in tota Graecia, ut pueri ingenui omnia ante errore concederet palmam ingenuo pudore...'
graphicen... docerentur... semper quidem honos ei fuit
88
Pliny, xxxv.55, about Bularchos: 'quid quod in con-
ut ingenui earn exercerent... perpetuo interdictu ne fesso perinde est Bularchi pictoris tabulam, in qua erat
servitia docerentur'. Scribanius evidently collapsed here Magnetum proelium, a Candaule rege Lydiae... repen-
two distinct, if related, statements by Pliny into a single sam auro?'
sentence. 89 The image of the wings of the angels dividing the
84
Pliny, xxxv.67, about Parrhasius: 'primus symmetrian air in a manner reminiscent of rowing Scribanius prob-
picturae dedit, primus argutias voltus, elegantiam capilli, ably derived from Vergil, Aeneid, i.301, where Mercury
venustatem oris.' descends from Olympus ('volat ille per aera magnum/
85
Pliny, xxxv.56, about Kimon of Kleonai: 'Hic cata- remigio alarum'), to obtain for Aeneas a friendly wel-
grapha invenit, hoc est obliquas imagines, et varie for- come in Carthage.
mare voltus, respicientes suspicientesve vel despicientes.'
86
Pliny, xxxv.56-7, 'articulis membra distinxit, venas
protulit, praeterque in vestibus rugas et sinus invenit.'
SCRIBANIUS ON ART 199
torqueri, alios in caelo gaudio diffluere, aemula bonorum & malorum retributione; vt &
spectatorem suum tormenta terreant, & alliciant gaudia. Dedit de eadem re lacobus de
Backer, varium & nobile opus, dignum posteritate & vita; & quod cum veteribus compo-
natur.
Magnus fuit Parrhasius Ephesius, qui Cressam nutricem, infantemque in manibus dedit:
qui Athletam in certamine currentem, vt sudare videatur; qui alterum arma deponentem,
ut anhelare sentiatur.90 Magnus Aristides Thebanus, cuius erat oppido capto ad matris
morientis e vulnere mammam adrepens infans: intelligiturque sentire mater, & timere
ne emortuo lacte sanguinem infans lambat.9' Non erit inferior Petrus Bruegelius, qui
Infanticidium Herodis in media statuit niue; vt & niuem credas, & sanguinem iures; &
exhorrescas in illa sanguinis & niuis, candoris & ruboris, saeua mistione. Iam vbi matrem
videris spargentem comas, lacerantem vultum, & pro sudore lacrymas, tamquam salebrosos
torrentes, vnicum cari solamen pignoris, protrudentem, quid dices? quid vbi alteram, quasi
iam iam cadente anima, aut in vltimo secretionis suae spiritu iacentem; in qua cum nihil
videas lacrymarum, mortis videas plurimum: vbi tertiam vno vulnere lac & sanguinem fun-
dentem, pendentisque ab vbere infantis animam imbibentem; vt & infans lac sanguinem-
que bibat, & animam in eamdem nutriciam mammam iaculetur, tamquam redditurus
vitam, a qua acceperat; non inclames, Vicisti? quid vbi infantem ingenti vulnere confossum,
in quo intelligere possis quantum restet animae, & in vltima illa proiectione niuem pro
vberibus sugentem, quasi in redhibitionem animae per vulnera fugientis; non acclames, Io
triumphe?
Ingens gloria Timantis, cuius est Iphigenia,92 oratorum laudibus celebrata: qua stante
ad aras peritura, cum moestos pinxisset omnes, praecipue patruum: in quo cum tristitiae
imaginem consumpsisset, patris velauit vultum, quem digne non poterat ostendere. Eritne
minor Quintini9' Messys, a quo habes demortuum Christi corpus linteo inextensum? Vide-
bis hic sub carae ceruicis onere, non tam pondere quam dolore fatiscentem Nicodemum,
succidentibus genibus. Videbis Dei matrem, quae in cruce steterat, in filij morte tamquam
laxatis neruis, soluta compage, decoriter subsidentem, ni a discipulo, cui commissa, susten-
tetur quasi in subsidium: cui etiam, non vt sub pondere carl pignoris, sed vt sub ingenti
moeroris mole, genua labant. Videbis & Magdalenam pugnantibus inter praecordia moes-
titudine & amore, vicariamque animam pro dilecti anima spondentem, dum capillum
spargit, vnguenta parat, & capillorum & vnguentorum & oblitam sui. Habes & loannem,
in ardenti aheno, aestuante oleo & tamquam de insessoris sui victoria indignantem, animo
vultuque pacatum, ac quasi a tepenti medicante balneo recreatum. Habes puellam psalt-
riam in loannis caede, inuerecundo librato vestigio, terram non tam inambulantem, quam
verrentem: habes puellae matrem, quae libidinis oculos in demortui caput iaculatur, tam
impuro obtutu, vt frigeat omne lupanarium scortum, prae hac flamma. Magnus Xeuxis.
Inferiorne loannes Hemssen? aut cuius ingenij artisque decus maius? intuere vtriusque
penicilli, tamquam doctae matris eruditos partus; dubitabis, magisne eluceat illius lupiter
latera claudentibus diis,94 an huius Prodigus Bacchidibus circumsessus; illius Hercules
dracones strangulans, an huius Prodigus deiugulato marsupio, fustes pro genis basians;
illius Alcmena matre pauente, an huius Prodigus incertus animi, pugnantibus inter se,
fame, frigore, erubescentia, praeteritorum memoria, futurorum metu. Quid quod in eadem
tabula non vnius gloriam aemulatus? Clarus veteri fama Niceas, qui supra reliquos, canes
prosperrime expressit:95 at noster felem, quae nihil illius concedat molossis. Clarus Pausias,
90 Pliny, xxxv.70-1:
[Parrhasius] 'pinxit et Thressam 9: Ed.: Quintini.
[=-Cressam in old reading] nutricem infantemque in 94
Pliny, xxxv.63, about Zeuxis: 'Iuppiter eius in throno
manibus eius... [sunt et duae picturae eius] hoplites in adstantibus diis et Hercules infans dracones strangulans
certamine ita decurrens ut sudare videatur, alter arma Alcmena matre coram pavente...' Here Scribanius di-
deponens ut anhelare sentiatur.' vides Pliny's description of a single painting into three
91 Pliny, xxxv.98:
'Aequalis eius fuit Aristides Thebanus parts, comparing each one with an individual section of
...huis opera: oppido capto ad matris morientis ex vol- another single work, Hemessen's ProdigalSon.
nere mammam adrepens infans intelligeturque sentire 95
Pliny, xxxv.133, about Nicias: 'huic eidem adscri-
mater et timere ne emortuo lacte sanguinem lambat.' buntur quadripedes, prosperrime canes expressit.' The
92
Pliny, xxxv.73: 'Timanthi vel plurimum adsuit in- 'molossian' dogs, not mentioned by Pliny in this context,
genii. eius enim est Iphigenia...' The remainder repeats Scribanius may have interpolated from his knowledge of
Pliny's text verbatim. Horace (see Satires,vi.5.114).
200 JULIUS S. HELD
cuius boues imitati multi, aequauit nemo;96 ac nescio an huius porci inferiore lintrem
degrunniant miraculo. Clarus Timomachus, cuius Medeam octoginta talentis venumdatam
accepimus:97 ast ego dubito, dignone satis auro permutari possit Hemsseni Lena, exerta
impudenti lingua Prodigum inter amicas ludens. Taceo tabulae huius reliqua, mensae
apparatum, senem bibulum, caecum citharoedum, operisque auctorem varias vno spiritu
tibias animantem, omnimodis peritum vt pictorem ita & modificatorem.
Varro narrat cognitum a se Posim nomine, ab eoque; factas Romae vuas & pisces, ita vt
non esset aspectu discernere a veris.9• Quid diceret si culinam vidisset loachimi Buecklaer,
in qua poma & hortorum reliqua; in qua altilia, carnes, pisces, ita rem mentiuntur, vt non
vnam fallant ancillam coquariam?
Fuit & Pamphilus, cuius est Vlysses in rate," vt & periclitari videas, & sperare: & Echion,
cuius est Liber Pater,0ooin quo victorem agnoscas, & hederatam tamquam a torculari lu-
bentiam. Apud vos vero Guilielmus Key: cuius est Christus immoriens cruci, latroque inter
blasphemas vltima desperatione voces animam ingenti corporis contorsione euomens; alter-
que culpam agnoscens, & veniam deprecans. Sed super haec, senex veneranda canitie, laeto
vultu, ore blando, cui nihil desit extra vocem: nam & animam inesse reris, ita oculi, os,
vultusque reliqua, totam cum penicillo mentem afflatam testantur.
Laudatus etiam, & inter primos numeratus Protogenes, qui anhelantis canis spumam,
melius irata spongia quam penicillo expressit:10' cuius etiam est Satyrus tibias tenens"'2 &
inflans, & varia concentus expectatione auditorem fallens. de quo illud veteres, omnia illi
cum Apelle fuisse communia, nisi quod ille manum de tabula nesciret tollere, memorabili
praecepto, nocere saepe nimiam diligentiam.'0, Neque Protogene minor Martinus de Vos;
cuius est, auersantis psaltriae vultum, magni Baptistae caput; truncumque corpus, tamquam
a recenti vulnere & lapsu supinum. Huius etiam est Antonius in aera raptus, tanta stipatus
monstrorum saeua varietate, vt nihil necessum sit ad terrorem inferos adire; vna te tabula
docebit quid timere debeas.
Fuerunt & alij singuli in arte, quam profitebantur,• magni. Hic Callimachi exemplo
non saltantes Lacaenas,105 sed rusticum agmen recoctum cereuisia, tam certa expressit
agraria lege, vt nec Bacchum desideres, nec illicem tibiam. alij, nemora, arbores, fiondes,
luxuriantesque comas, ac quasi a vento motas dederunt, vt & sibilum exspectes, & aues
fallant infida sede. pluresque hic etiam, quos graue foret recensere, & curioso volumine
percensuit Carolus van Mander. Vt si suos iactet Italia Vrbinos, Angelos, Tizianos; suos
Germania Dureos, Holbenios, Aldegrauios: suos Antuerpia possit Quintinos, Florios,
Bruegelios: vt vnam iam vrbem cum tot laxissimis regnis ingeniorum magnitudine audeam
componere. Quid si ciuitatis huius reliquos? quid si vniuersi Belgij nobiles pictores ad-
duxero, & e singulis oppidis suos euocauero, quantos darem? Cleuios, Brilios, Cockios,
Congnetos, Mabusaeos, Mostardos, Moros, Schoorelios, Aertsios, Hemskerkios, Pourbusios,
Barensios, VVinghios, Hofnaglios, Cocxios? Cocxij est Antuerpiae Sebastianus iaculo traes-
fixus: in quo videas sentire animam, sinistri pedis femorisque retractu, cumrintima, sagitta
depascitur: quin & spectatores vulneris dolorem sentiunt: & Georgius ab eadem manu
96 l"' Pliny, xxxv.102-4. Here Scribanius condensed into a
Pliny, xxxv. 126-7: 'Pausias... fecit... bourn immo-
lationem... picturam, quam postea imitati sunt multi, few lines Pliny's account of Protogenes's frustration as he
aequavit nemo.' tried to paint the foam on the mouth of a panting dog
97Pliny, xxxv. 136: 'Timomachus... Aiacem et Mediam and only succeeded when he angrily threw the sponge,
pinxit... LXXX talentis venundatas.' used to wipe off his attempts, at the picture.
8 Pliny, xxxxv.155: 'M. Varro tradit sibi '02 Pliny, xxxv. 106. 'Satyrus... tenentern tibias' are the
cognitumn Ro-
mnaePossimnnomine, a quo facta poina et uvas alitem only words of Pliny's that Scribanius repeated; the re-
nescisse aspectu discernere a veris.' Varro was Pliny's mainder appears to be his own elaboration.
principal source, but this is one of the few places where '": Pliny, xxxv.80, about Protogenes: Apelles... dixit
Pliny acknowledged it. Possis, at any rate, was a sculptor, enim omnia sibi cum illo paria esse... sed uno se prae-
not a painter. stare, quod manum de tabula sciret tollere, memorabili
9' Pliny, xxxv.76: 'Ulixes in rate' is all Pliny says about praecepto nocere saepe nimiam diligentiam.' Scribanius's
Pamphilus's picture; it is Scribanius who develops the version ('de quod illud veteres') turns Apelles's critique
emnotionalcontent of the scene. into an opinlo (co0n1Nl/nlis.
100Pliny, xxxv.78. Echion is Pliny's Aetion, who indeed '"4 Ed.: profitetebantur.
painted among various 'nobiles picturae' a 'Liber pater' 10' Pliny, xxxiv.92, about Callimachus: 'huius sunt
(Dionysus), but the remainder of the sentence I have not saltantes Lacaenae.' Scribanius mentions the Spartan
yet found in Pliny. dancing girls again on p. 40, in his section on sculpture.
SCRIBANIUS ON ART 2(1I
trunco affixus; rotaque crudeli circumactu Martyris membra perpetuis nouaculis dilania-
tura, in ipso volutionis suae initio caelo tacta, & in crudelitatis ministros eo potentius
saeuiens, quo in vnum Martyrem multorum carnificum ingenia sudauerant. equos hic
habes cum sessoribus turbatos; vnum etiam excussum pronum in terra, in cuius nudo dorso
omnis ars certare videatur: neque minor hic naturae expressio quam in Apellis equo, ad
quem adhinniuerunt equi viui.106 Nullus sit finis si pergo. ergo abrumpo, & in medio cursu
gradum sisto. totamque hanc artem, humanae aemulam naturae, cogitationi potius cuius-
que quam calamo committo.
I cannot entirely pass over the art of painting, especially since I am aware that the law
decreed that only free-born men could practice painting and that it was permanently
forbidden to teach it to slaves, not only in Sicyon, but throughout Greece. In discussing
this great art, however, I shall not deal with living artists, the great marvels of Europe-
the reward for listing them being minimal, whereas the danger of giving offence may be
great. For if I mention only a few, what could I expect but jealousy? If I list them all, the
task would be enormous; and were I to prefer one to another, what could I expect except
abusive words or painted caricature. Later generations, free from the vexation of rivalry,
will proclaim with noble pen the great names of this age and your city. For the present
I would venture to say this about them as a whole: their brushwork leaves nothing to
be desired in distinction: not the beauty of the mouth, the elegance of the hairstyles, the
expressiveness of the eyes, nor the faces, looking back, up and down; nor the folds and
creases of the garments, nor the twisting of the veins, nor the fitness of the joints and
limbs, nor the bulging of the muscles, like bulbs; nor the delights or melancholy of the
countryside; nor the tree-tops of the forest, whether in full foliage or shedding their leaves;
nor the hills which rise abruptly; nor the mountain ridges with their pastures, the slopes
with their greenery, the shady dens, open stretches of cultivation, hollows with springs and
steep inclines made fertile by rivers. Not that you will find ancient artists deficient in these
things: not Apollodorus of Athens, Parrhasius of Ephesus, nor Zeuxis, who was fooled by
Parrhasius's curtain and with perfect modesty conceded the prize to him; not Eupompus,
Pamphilus, Demophilus, Melanthius, Echion, Euphranor, Cydias nor Pausias.
But my writing is concerned with those artists who have died and whom death can be
seen to have placed beyond envy's reach. Nearly every kingdom of the world had great
artists working in this genre. Their names have been consecrated to eternity by those
ancients who admired and praised all the arts and sciences. Still, you will find that more
painters have been produced by this single republic in one century than from the entire
world over many former ages. Let us recall those of old with a grateful memory and, as far
as is appropriate, use them as a comparison.
Celebrated among the ancients was the painting of the Battle of the Magnetes by Bular-
chus, for which Candaules, King of Lydia, paid its weight in gold. Yet here today I can look
at the Battle of Heaven by Frans Floris, with Lucifer cast down and St Michael standing
over him, accompanied by his mocking, terrifying and threatening troops. Lucifer's cohorts
are hanging from a precipice and trembling in mid-descent, so that you would think they
are falling and with their minds in turmoil are insulting heaven in final blasphemy. Else-
where I see the Mother of God ascending to the heavens with angels playing all around
her, so that you would think that their blessed minds are overflowing with joy and that
they cut through the air with their wings, as if rowing, slowly and gently. And this joy is
felt throughout the entire realm of the heavens, so that everything seems to have assumed
the appearance of happiness, now that all signs of grief have been driven away. Floris also
painted a Last Judgement on the Day of Divine Reckoning which inspires great terror.